Hellboy is a masterpiece in everything it sets out to do despite the troubles of being an independent comic and the creator Mike Mignola's conflicts with his editor while on its run. All you need to know plot wise about Hellboy for the Analysis is that the titular character’s a half demon whose storyline is about a prophecy he's going to destroy the world.

Art wise Mignola has one of the most unique art styles for western comics most noticeable is the shading style, his coloured comics never have different tones for each colour instead shading with large blocks of black. This style was perfect for Hellboy as it's a story that's incredibly dark and grim but filled with colourful characters and layers underneath the black and white premise. Mignola's character design also normally break propositions and don’t follow anatomy accurately like most comics but that's because his characters are expressive in shape language, the protagonist Hellboy himself resembles more of a triangle than a square which is used commonly for heroes as squares represent heroic characters, triangles however represent evil or deceitful characters. Though Hellboy is a very heroic character his appearance as a half demon makes people mistrust him and fear him so the triangle shape in his posture is a subtle indication of how he is judged. The tone of Hellboy is also captured incredibly by Mignola's art, in some issues when other artists did the artwork there was a subtle disconnect and messy aspects to the tone, The Hellboy comics unlike the more famous movies is quite clearly more of a tragic story about a young man who is destined to destroy everything he loves and is trying everything he can to prevent it and the subtle expressions of Mignola's characters and composition gives the entire story a deep profound sadness.

Though the comic is episodic in nature covering multiple storylines and mythologies not directly about Hellboy and his fate, almost every arc ends with Hellboy facing conflicts and struggles directly because of him trying to deny the fate he is given. It makes Hellboy a very stoic but lonely and sad character. His character design makes him look like a rough, cold and grizzled detective, which is how many people treat him since in the story that is what he was raised to be, he was raised to be a monster hunter for the US government and he didn’t know much of any other lifestyle. He is given markings on his face that make him look like a man in his 30s but all of this is juxtaposed against the fact that he mentally is much more of an older teenager or a young man, he is constantly a fish out of water in his stories especially when it relates to non-mythological problems.

Unlike the tendencies of western comics to focus on action scenes or conflict Hellboy is filled with quiet scenes of reflection and conversations, there is a shift in the middle of the run to push the story into a more existential dread tone and an isolation that's not felt in many other comics. The shift at this point has Hellboy on his own, many side characters sparsely appear with it mostly being filled with one-time characters or foes for Hellboy to deal with and Hellboy’s past and future being thrown at him showing cracks in his stoic nature. The ending of the series actually has Hellboy losing and following the prophecy he was destined to follow, but instead of it being a depressing ending it's hopeful as the ending is not about denying fate. The overall story of Hellboy is about defining who you are instead of the label others give you and the sense of identity you get through living your life. Ending with dying Hellboy but finding peace within himself. The use of colour in the series always had Hellboy pop out from nearly every scene he was in and in the final few scenes of the comic he is in a place with almost the exact same colour everywhere and he pops more than most of the entire series. The final few pages of the comic have a profound feeling of understanding and acceptance despite it being a sad ending.
Sadly the original core comics haven’t been the main material consumed for Hellboy, as the movies which have their own tone and mood have been the main media consumed about the character. Though they don’t really capture the development of Hellboy as a character and the message of his story, the comic is excellent and would never have been picked up by any big publisher as it isn’t a superhero or traditionally entertaining story. I consider it to be one of my favourite indie comic book series.